From the MLJ Archive

Narrator: We apologize for the poor quality of the following recording of a sermon by the late Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. Although we have digitally restored this to improve clarity, the quality is not as good as we would like. We do apologize for this, but nevertheless, hope this sermon will be a great encouragement and a blessing to you.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The words to which I should like to call your attention once more are to be found in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. The first chapter and the seventh verse. The seventh verse in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

I say that I call attention to this mighty statement once more because we began considering it together last Sunday morning. And the things that we discovered were these: that this is undoubtedly here a reminder of the whole foundation of our standing as Christians.

It is one of those basic, primary, fundamental truths without which we are not in the Christian life at all. And the things that it emphasizes are that our salvation is entirely and altogether in the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has no dealings with us in grace apart from what he does for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no salvation apart from him. There is no single blessing which is a part of salvation apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

There is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. Jesus Christ himself is the Savior and is the salvation. And all that we have, we receive in him and through him and from him. In whom we have redemption.

And then, of course, we went on to emphasize that we are saved particularly by his blood. In whom we have redemption through or by his blood. And we saw that that was a direct reference to the fact that his death is a sacrificial death.

That it links it up with all the offerings of the Old Testament. He is the great antitype to which the types pointed, "without shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins." So that we must interpret his death always in that way.

The term "blood" emphasizes that and compels us to do so. We are saved by his precious blood. And also we looked at the term redemption, reminding ourselves that it is a figure which points directly to an act of ransoming.

It is a buying out of, deliverance from a bondage and a captivity by the paying of the price that is stipulated. Well, now, that is the point at which more or less we arrived. But we clearly cannot stop at that because the verse itself takes us much and well beyond that.

So we come back to the statement once more, in order that we may discover in it and extract from it some further riches of the grace of God. Now again as we do so, let me make this general remark. As we look at a statement like this, we have discovered already and shall discover more this morning the importance of particulars.

Now the great danger always in reading a mighty statement like this, this introduction to this Epistle to the Ephesians, is to take it in general and to regard the particular words and the particular statements as being more or less unimportant.

Something that we can slide over as it were, as we look at the big statement. Now that it seems to me is a very false way of interpreting this scripture or indeed any other scripture. The particulars are all important. The details are packed full of meaning.

We have already seen that in considering the blood. The apostle says, "by his blood," not by his death. And that wasn't accidental. He deliberately says by his blood because there is a meaning brought out by that which is not brought out simply by referring to his death.

And it is because people have not observed this and have taken it as a general idea as if you could substitute death here for blood and still have the same truth. It is for that reason that there have been often times in the church heresies and people have robbed themselves of the real wonders of this great salvation.

Every word is important. It has significance. It has meaning. And it is our business as we come to study it and to look at it together to observe exactly what the apostle says. Not what we think he wanted to say, but what he actually says.

In order that thereby we may, I say, derive the true benefit. In other words, there are people who take this mighty introduction just in one discourse and feel that they have dealt with it. But you cannot, of course. It is so crammed with doctrine and with truth.

And every particular must have its due weight and emphasis. So we spend our time in thus looking at the riches of his grace. Very well. We come back then, I say, to the teaching. And again we must come back to this word "redemption."

Because the Apostle Paul tells us to do so. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. Now we did look at that word "redemption" as I have reminded you last Sunday morning. But as we did so last Sunday morning, we were interested in it mainly as it taught us something about the method of redemption.

That is how it is done, by the paying of this ransom price. But now today we are rather anxious to look at this term "redemption" more from the standpoint of its content. More from the standpoint of what it brings to us and what it gives us and what it does for us.

Because it has both these meanings. It is as the result of the paying of that price that certain things and consequences follow to us because the ransom price has been paid, we are redeemed. Very well then, what does that mean?

What does it mean to say that we have redemption? Or that we are redeemed by his blood? Well, what the apostle tells us here is this: the forgiveness of sins. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

So we must consider this term, "the forgiveness of sins" as it tells us something about the redemption. But now here we must be careful. And it is here at once we see the importance of the principle of interpretation that I have just been laying down.

If you read this superficially, you might very well come to the conclusion that the apostle is saying that redemption consists of the forgiveness of sins. And that redemption is equivalent to forgiveness of sins. It is a kind of equation: redemption equals forgiveness of sins.

As if the apostle was saying, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." But he does not say that. And there are very good reasons why he does not say that. But oftentimes, I think, we all of us have probably found ourselves reading that verse in that way or quoting it.

"In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." There is a sense in which as I want to show you, that is right. But there is another sense in which it is wrong because it is incomplete.

Now redemption as it is used in the scripture is a bigger term than that. And it is very wrong to confine it only to forgiveness of sins. Listen to the apostle, for instance, using it in the Epistle to the Romans in the eighth chapter and the 23rd verse.

He puts it like this, he says, "Even we ourselves that have received the first fruits of the Spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body." Or listen to him putting it in the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the first chapter and the 30th verse.

"But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Now clearly there in both instances, redemption cannot be equated with the forgiveness of sins only.

Because you notice the sequence. He says, "wisdom," the wisdom of God unto us if you like, "even righteousness, sanctification, and then redemption." But the righteousness comes, but the forgiveness of sins comes there at the beginning under the righteousness.

And the redemption is added after even the sanctification. In other words, redemption must be regarded as the whole of our salvation. In that example in First Corinthians, the apostle may have been thinking in terms of our ultimate glorification, and I have no doubt he was.

But there the idea is the completion of the salvation. So that the term "redemption" is a big term, a comprehensive term which really includes the whole of our salvation. We are not finally redeemed until our very bodies have been redeemed.

Our bodies are still not redeemed. You and I can say that we are redeemed and that we are yet to be redeemed. I am not fully redeemed until my very body has been changed and sin has been taken entirely out of it. The law of sin that is in my members must have been taken right out before my full redemption is complete.

So that we see very clearly that this term "redemption" is not just equivalent to or to be equated with exactly the forgiveness of sins. Very well. If that is so, we are obviously confronted by this question: Why then does the apostle introduce the forgiveness of sins at this point?

If it is not just something which is a definition of redemption, why does he bring it in at all? "In whom we have redemption through his blood, comma, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Well now, it is just here, I think, we see something which is of such vital importance, not only for our experience of this salvation, but also for our enjoyment of it with our minds as well as in a more experimental manner.

Why does he say this forgiveness of sins at this point? Well, the answer surely must be this: He has used the term "redemption." Well now then, what is it? Well, the first thing about it is the forgiveness of sins. He gives us the first item.

It is a great thing which is ultimately going to end in the glorification of my body. Yes, but how does it begin? It begins with the forgiveness of sins. There is no sanctification without this. There is no glorification without this.

This is the first thing and therefore, in many ways, the thing with which we must start and which we must emphasize. It is the beginning. It is the first vital step. It is the key that opens the door to everything else that follows.

Now this is clearly a most important matter because we have to realize that the first problem in connection with men and his salvation is the problem of the guilt of our sin. Now we stay with it for this good reason: that this is something which is disliked.

Most people are interested in the problem of sin. Yes, but you will find that generally they are interested in it in this way: They are anxious to be delivered from the power of sin. That is not surprising, of course, because sin always leads to misery, and nobody wants to be miserable.

So we naturally, all of us, crave for deliverance from misery. We all want to be happy. And if we come to see that sin is the cause of unhappiness, well then deliverance from the power of sin and to be enabled to overcome sin is the direct road to happiness.

So you will always find that to preach Christ as one who enables us to overcome the power of sin is always popular. People are always ready to believe in or to accept a Jesus or a Christ who is going to make them happy. Who is going to solve the problem of temptation and misery and sin.

So as long as he is offered as one who helps us like that to live life and to be happy, there is no offense whatsoever in connection with him. And everybody is ready to believe in him. Oh, yes. But the Gospel does not start at that point.

That is where we would like it to start. And that is why people always prefer to preach on the resurrection rather than on the cross. And that is, of course, what is so popular today. The tendency today is to emphasize the resurrection, to preach the living Christ as the Redeemer.

He is offered as a friend. He is offered as a companion. He is offered perhaps as the healer of the body, this risen Lord with all his power, who is looking down upon us and who is there waiting to receive us and to help us, the resurrected Christ. The glorified Lord.

Well, of course, all that is perfectly true. Yes, but it is only true if you arrive at all that via the cross, via the death, via the blood. But there is the offense. There comes in the offense of the cross. There comes in the stumbling block.

This crucified Savior, this dead Savior, this Savior whose blood is essential. Men and women dislike that. But whether we like it or dislike it, it is the thing that always comes first in the scripture. And it is absolutely essential and vital that it should come first.

We do not like this idea of forgiveness of sins because we do not like to think that we need forgiveness. We do not like ourselves as sinners. We do not like this whole thought of a sinner. We do not like these terms "justification" and so on.

We say, "That is legalism." We want help. We want deliverance. We want happiness. We want power in our lives. We want anything that is going to give us joy. Oh, but you cannot come to that, my friend, before first of all you have been humbled to the dust.

We do not like repentance because it is painful and because it means that we have to face ourselves and to examine ourselves and see ourselves as we really are. But here you see we are reminded at once by the apostle that we have no interest whatsoever in deliverance from the power of sin until we have first of all been delivered from the guilt of sin.

Redemption, what is it? First and foremost, forgiveness of sins. And I do not hesitate to assert from this pulpit this morning, unless you have realized that your sins must be forgiven, you are not a Christian.

Oh, but you may say to me, "But I am conscious that Christ is helping me." I reply that Christ cannot help you, will not help you until the problem of your guilt is first dealt with. There are many people who are using the name of Christ psychologically.

And you can have psychological experiences, but you must not deviate from the Christian, from the scriptural way. And the first thing in the scripture is the forgiveness of sins. I remember a friend once telling me of a difficulty he had with certain friends of his.

This man was a doctor, and his friend happened to be a doctor. And unfortunately, the married life of this doctor friend and his wife had gone astray. They were not Christians, but in their trouble and in their distress, everything having gone wrong, they went to this other man, my friend who was a Christian.

And he wrote to me about this. Because he said, "I felt somehow that I could not help them." And his difficulty was, he said, that they could not realize that the question of guilt came in, the guilt, sin as guilt. They wanted help, and they had come to him because they had got an idea somehow or another that Christianity can help you when your life gets into a mess and into a tangle.

And they were ready to believe in some Christ that would help them there. But he, of course, being a true Christian, was talking to them about the need of forgiveness and of guilt. But he said, "They did not seem to understand my language."

Now that is the position. Let me put it to you like this: The fundamental need of man is his need of God. Everything that goes wrong in this world and in this life goes wrong because we are not rightly related to God.

And as what we need is the gift that God alone can give us and the redemption that God has provided, clearly the first thing must be this: We must be reconciled to God. You cannot be blessed by God unless you are rightly related to him.

The wrath of God is upon the children of disobedience and will continue to be. Surely, if all we need is to be obtained from God who is a person, the first thing I need to be is to be reconciled to the person. And I cannot be reconciled to God until the question of my sins and my guilt has been dealt with.

So you see, whenever the scripture talks about redemption, it always starts, as it must start, with the forgiveness of sins. Now did you notice it in that passage which we read together at the beginning? In that fifth chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, you notice how he puts it especially in the 10th verse.

"For if," he argues, "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." Oh, yes. The living Christ, thank God, does help us. He is our companion.

He is our aid, he is our strength, he is our power. By the life of Christ we are being saved in that sense. Yes, but you notice before that we had been saved by his death. And his life does not avail for us until we are first of all delivered and saved from the guilt of our sins by his death.

And again Paul puts it, you remember, in the eighth chapter of Romans. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?" Of course. But you see, he does not also with him freely give you all things until you have first of all been saved by his death.

There is nothing that I know of that is so subtle as this and so dangerous. And I am staying with it and emphasizing it because I find that it is seeping its way in a most insidious manner even into evangelical circles.

I read in an evangelical magazine some two or three years ago an article, a front-page article, on this theme: "The Message of the Gospel." And I was most interested to observe that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ was literally not mentioned at all.

He was depicted as Savior how? The risen, resurrected Lord. It is Christ alive that delivers, according to that message. Not, the cross was not mentioned. There was no mention of his death, let alone his blood. It was not there.

The cross was bypassed. We went straight to this living, resurrected Lord. "He is going to save us." And the atoning, sacrificial, substitutionary death was not even mentioned. But that is not scripture, my friends.

And I will go further, that is not salvation. We need first of all to be reconciled to God. The first step in redemption is the forgiveness of sins. And if you do not realize your guilt, you will never get the help you are looking for.

The first need of every sinner is not help and power to overcome sin and temptation. It is first of all to deal with his past sin, the wrath of God that is upon him, the deliverance from condemnation. So the apostle, you see, very deliberately when he mentions the word "redemption" and as he comes to give us some insight into it and as to what it means, puts the first thing first: the forgiveness of sins.

All the emphasis must be upon that. We are doomed, damned, guilty sinners by nature. And the first thing we all need is to be delivered from the wrath of God. Very well, let me go on to the second matter that is emphasized here.

The second thing that obviously the apostle is emphasizing is the doctrine, the Christian doctrine of forgiveness. He not only says it must come first. He is very concerned that we should know exactly what it means. Oh, how glibly we have recited this verse, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace," and on we go.

But what is the doctrine of forgiveness? What is the Christian doctrine of forgiveness? Well, let me remind you of it. Again, the modern ideas about it are so inadequate because we always think of it in terms of ourselves and what we think and what we do.

So the first thing we have to emphasize is this: that forgiveness is something which is extremely difficult. We do not think forgiveness is difficult, do we? We think forgiveness is very easy. We have got such loose, sentimental notions concerning it.

Somebody has done us wrong. Oh, well, we forgive. We overlook it. We pretend we have not seen it. It is all right. No problem at all. But my dear friends, according to the Bible, and I speak with reverence, the forgiveness of sins was a tremendous problem for Almighty God.

I do not hesitate to assert that the forgiveness of your sins and mine is, if I may so put it, the only problem with which God has ever been confronted. The forgiveness of sins, easy? God, as an indulgent father, has just to say, "All right, my child, come back."

People say, "The whole of the doctrine of salvation is in the parable of the prodigal son." But my dear friend, it is not, and it was not even meant to be. That parable was meant to speak one thing only, and that was that God was ready to forgive publicans and sinners as well as Pharisees.

Just that one thing and no more. It was never meant to be a complete exposition of salvation. For the same Christ who spoke that said that he had to go to Jerusalem, that he had come to give his life a ransom for many. The same Christ teaches it.

The whole of the Gospel is not in the parable of the prodigal son. Oh, no. The forgiveness of sins is as difficult as this: that nothing but the shedding of Christ's blood could accomplish it. God cannot forgive sins by a word.

It was a simple thing to create the world by the fiat of his word, "Let there be light," and there was light. May I ask with reverence, why God did not say, "Let men be forgiven"? And the answer is that God did not say, "Let men be forgiven," and forgive them by just saying it in a word like that because, I say it again with reverence, he could not do it.

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. God is eternally just and righteous and holy. He cannot contradict himself. Forgiveness of sins, that was the only way. There is none other good enough to pay the price of sin.

It is only by the blood of Christ that forgiveness becomes possible. It is the most difficult thing in the world, in the whole universe. Oh, how easily we could stay with this. Think of the power and the might of God.

Have we not seen it in the snow this last week and in the frost? Have you read the psalm that describes that? Read it, Psalm 147. The power of God in nature and in creation. How he can smash things by the frost, by ice and things like that, and the power of snow that seems so feeble and so light.

God orders everything so easily. Ah, but when it became a problem of forgiving the sins of mankind, it necessitated the Son leaving the courts of heaven and coming on earth and being born as a babe, and all that followed, and even the blood.

Through his blood. It is the only way. How difficult is the problem of the forgiveness of sins. Had we realized that? But let me go on and say another thing that is suggested here. Notice that God's way of doing it is a very thorough way.

It is not just a question of overlooking our sins and our transgressions. Oh, no, sin cannot be dealt with like that. Before God could forgive our sins, he must deal with sin and with sins in a very thorough manner. This very verse we are considering perhaps might be translated like this: "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses."

And a trespass suggests a violation of law, a transgression of law. So that you see, God's way of forgiveness is first of all something that exposes the sin. Now your tendency and mine is to cover it up and is it not? In order that we all may be happy.

We say, "It is all right, I will not take any." Now that is not God's way. God first of all exposes it. He unmasks it. He defines it. He pinpoints it. That was the whole business of the law. Sin was in being, as Paul argues in the fifth of Romans, from the moment that Adam fell.

But sin is not imputed where there is no law. So God brought in the law to impute it and to define it and to bring it home to us. And there is nowhere where sin is so brought home to us as at the cross of Christ and by the blood of Christ.

Before we are forgiven, we must realize something about the enormity of sin. And it is at the cross we see the enormity of sin. We see it as something so foul, so terrible, so horrible that it necessitates that, and that it leads to that.

You see, the cross first of all condemns us before it sets us free. And that is why people do not like it. Of course, I want the power to overcome my sin. Yes, but I do not like to be called a worm, as we were in that hymn by Isaac Watts that we have just been singing.

People say, "Fancy calling yourself a miserable worm." But I do not feel a miserable worm. Well, if you do not, my simple reply is that you should. And when a man really sees himself face to face with God and God's holy law, he realizes that he is less than a worm.

"Vile and full of sin I am," says Charles Wesley, and rightly. "In me, that is to say, in my flesh dwells no good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am." That is the language of people who have seen the guilt of their sin in the light of the cross of Christ.

It is such a terrible, foul, vile thing that nothing could deal with it but the blood of Christ. It is a thorough way of dealing with sin. It is not a patching over. It is not a covering over. It is not God saying, "All right." No, no.

It is God showing you the thing as it is, really bringing it out to the light. And then dealing with it. Another thing we can say about it is this: that God's way of dealing with sin is absolutely just. And how important this is.

That is the great statement, of course, in Romans 3, verse 25. Paul says in verse 24, "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Listen, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."

That is it. What he means is this: that God's way of dealing with sin is a just way. You know, there can be nothing more unjust at times than to forgive sin. You can do men a great harm and a great injustice if you just forgive his sin too lightly and too loosely.

God does not do that. God does not forgive sin in a way that allows us to go on sinning and relying upon the love of God to put everything right. Not at all. That would not be just. Everything that God does must be just, it must be righteous, it must be holy.

And in this way it is for this reason. God in Christ has punished sin. Sin merits punishment. It deserves punishment. God said that he would punish it. And that the punishment would be death. And if God went back on that, he would no longer be righteous and no longer be just.

So God's way of forgiveness is this: is to punish sin, to deal with it, to strike it, to smite it, to give the punishment that it deserves, the condign punishment. And that is what he did in Christ. So that as God forgives my sins by the blood of Christ, he declares his own righteousness, his own justice.

He is still just and at the same time the justifier of me as I believe in Christ. That is the biblical doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, my friends, something terribly difficult, something thorough, something which is absolutely just and righteous.

Not saying, "I forgive you." No, no. But forgiving you because your sin has been punished, because your guilt has been expiated. He is a just God in his forgiveness. But thank God, I can go on to say this. The forgiveness of sins as done by God through the blood of Christ is so thorough that it leads to a complete restoration of the offender to the favor of God.

Because God has done it in the way that he has done, we are absolutely forgiven once and for all and it is final. That is the glory of this. We are completely reconciled to God by the death of his Son. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." That is it.

"He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." God has dealt with your sins and mine in such a thorough way in Christ and by his blood, that he has really put them away once and forever and will never see them again.

What a marvelous thing this is. It is only God who can do that. You and I claim that we forgive people, do we not? Yes, but you and I cannot forget, you see. We forgive people, and then perhaps 20 years afterwards, something happens, and we think of it.

Do you remember the story? I remember hearing it when I was a boy. Of a poor old woman living in a cottage. She had stolen something from the property of a big farmer near at hand. But he had reprimanded her as he should have done, and having reprimanded her, he forgave her.

And for 20 years he went on giving gifts to this poor widow woman, as if she had never done anything wrong at all or transgressed against him. 20 years after this action, suddenly one of the hayricks of this farmer went on fire. And there was this tremendous conflagration.

And the poor widow woman, before she knew what was happening, found herself clapping her hands. In a sense she had forgiven the farmer as the farmer had forgiven her. Yes, but she had not forgotten. You and I can forgive, but oh how difficult it is to forget.

The glory of this great doctrine of the forgiveness of sins in scripture is this, and it is my privilege to remind you of it. God has done it in such a way that he forgets. It is gone. He will never think of it again. He has cast it into the sea of his forgetfulness.

It is a thorough dealing with sin, a final dealing with sin. "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Very well, shall I close with this word? You notice what the apostle says, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins."

He does not say that we are going to have it. He does not say that we might have it. He says that we have it. It is a present possession. It is something that we are to enjoy here and now in the immediate present. "Being justified by faith," says Paul, "we have peace with God."

My friend, to be a Christian is this: is to know that your sins are already forgiven. The doctrine can be put in this way: that God laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ all your sins. All the sins you have ever committed, all the sins you will ever commit, they were all laid upon him, they were all punished and dealt with there.

When God forgives you and me, he does not need to do anything new. He has already done it in Christ. What he does is to apply that to us. When a man believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no need for a fresh action on the part of God.

He is simply applying what was done once and for all on Calvary to me. In whom we have redemption through his blood. And should you fall into sin again, it is the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, that will still cleanse you from all sin and all unrighteousness.

It is the only way. It is the one way. That is our salvation. It is a completed transaction. And that is why, you see, the apostle again emphasizes the blood of Christ. He died once and for all and forever. There is no need, says the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he should repeat the sacrifice.

It has happened once and for all. When he had once suffered for our sins, took his seat. And that is the position of every true Christian at this moment. If you are still saying that you are not good enough to call yourself a Christian, it means that you do not understand the first principle of salvation.

If you say you are trying to make yourself a Christian, you have never seen it. This is the Christian: a man who realizes that he has been reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ, while he was yet a sinner, while he was yet an enemy and an alien in his mind, while he was going directly to hell.

Even then, it was all done by the death, by the blood of Christ. And the Christian is a man who believes that and who knows that his sins have been forgiven freely and entirely and utterly and absolutely and once and forever.

In and by the blood of Christ. And he rejoices in it, and he sings, "I have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, justification and righteousness, sanctification, yes, and glorification to come, and every other grace, according to the riches of his grace."

Beloved friend, do you know that? Do you know that you have redemption? Do you know your sins are forgiven? Look unto him. Stay at the cross until you know it and see it and rejoice in it and say, "I am reconciled. I have peace with God through Jesus Christ his Son." Amen.